The Effect of Drugs and Alcohol on Consciousness and Spiritual Vehicles

James L. Young III
Director of Drug Education
Free Medical Clinic of Cleveland
June 12, 1982
Cleveland, Ohio

We tend, in day to day conversation, periodically to mention our soul in the sense that we have or possess this soul, which is attached to or from or behind us somewhere and floats along above or behind or beside us like some insubstantial balloon. As in so many of our daily conversational modes, we need to remember that exactly the inverse is true, that man is a soul and has a body.

We are souls and, in fact, have several bodies through which we manifest specific physiological, emotional and mental (thinking) functions, transferring from less substantial, finer-structured mental and desire body structures through the denser physical body structure that we have assumed for the purposes of learning, growth and the ascension of consciousness.

This multiple body structure presents a major challenge to the evolving physical and spiritual race: Learning control and understanding of our multiple bodies and their integration to promote our spiritual growth. The mechanism of communication and of understanding is known in the classic literature as the chakra structure.

The chakras themselves are vital whirlpools of energy that allow communication between the Source of our consciousness, which is nonphysical and the responsibility for and projection of our consciousness on the physical level. The mechanism by which this occurs and the control and understanding which we possess of that mechanism either enhances or limits the possibilities of our growth.

The chakras exist within and slightly beyond our dense physical body, interpenetrate it and make a final connection within the physical structure we know as the spine and the spinal cord. These structures classically, in inter-plane communication, are seven in number.

The Etheric Double

Between the lower emotional center, the desire body in which we may leave our physical body to do work on the "inner," and the dense physical body with which we work on the "outer," there is a medium of exchange, sealing us in all but specified directions from contact directly with the Desire Plane. This secondary structure, known in the classic literature as the etheric double, is a physical structure of neither Desire nor Mental Plane material, finer in its density than the visible physical body but made, nonetheless, of physical atoms.

Our physical body requires oxygen and glucose for its metabolism, proteins for its building and maintenance and vitality for its life and consciousness. The intake points for oxygen, glucose and protein are obvious to us all. The intake point of vitality, whose origin is the sun and its action upon physical atoms, and the input points for thoughts and emotions that make up our nonphysical being, occur within the structure of the vital body, the etheric double.

Vitality, known in the literature as prana, is taken into the body through a mechanism that I will describe momentarily. This vitality distributes itself through duplicate channels overlying our basic physiologic nervous system through all cells of the body, releasing vitality, mobilizing and structuring cells and exiting the body through the extremities, through the pores and bodily orifices in a fine, nearly invisible spray extending a few inches from the body. This "cupping" effect, this vital duplicate of our physical body duplicates each organ structure, bone, nerve and vein. It exists within, around and interpenetrates the actual visible physical structure and forms the vital body made of prana, born of prana, cupping and holding our physical body, providing it with life and vitality.

Location and Appearance of Chakras

The chakras exist within the vital body. When seen in frontal view, as has been traditional in esoteric works, the chakras seem to overlie particular physiological structures. In fact, the chakras exist slightly beyond the visible surface of the body. The seven chakras, which lie along the spinal midline, form the communication network. The eighth chakra, the splenic chakra, lying just to the heart side of the spinal line, forms the intake port for the physical vitality necessary to maintain the physical body, to distribute, carry, form and hold the physical body. Within the physical body structure then, the chakras appear.

In the undeveloped individual, they appear as small, one and a half to two inch circles, hence the term chakra, meaning "wheel." They have the appearance of a lightly-spoked, round and rotating object, giving the impression of a wheel.

In the more developed soul, the individual who has begun to understand, control and focus his or her emotional and mental energies, the chakras begin to grow in size, depth and color. They begin to rotate more rapidly until changing from the appearance of a wheel, they begin to resemble nothing so much as a huge and iridescent flower, hence their classical name, the lotus structures. All communication between the planes of consciousness occurs via the chakras, which are located in the necessary positions to provide the power of ascension.

[Note: Under sacrifice of self-will and soul conquering of emotions and idle thoughts in soul ascension, the chakras and lotus structures lose color until they become pale golden to white in appearance. The development of self-will deeply colors both sets of structures.]

Sacral, Lumbar and Solar Chakras

The primal chakra, the muladhara chakra, called the root or sacral chakra, is located at the base of the spine. It acts as the intake, control and distribution point of earthly fire [magnetic currents of earth], the reascending fire of creation that has descended into the physical, reached its lowest point of structure and now reascends to God. Trapped in the middle of that reascending fire, we find ourselves with the fire of creation reascending through our spinal channels, waiting only to be directed and controlled. So, through the root center chakra, the creative fire of earth, the kundalini , enters our bodies to be used, subject only to our will.

One level of kundalini is active in all living beings; this is the energy that brings the chakras into rotation. The outer layer of the kundalini forms the rotating vortex of chakra energy that reaches through the planes to our bodies. Pouring down through the centers of the chakras come the emotional, sensory and mental impressions that give us consciousness.

The lower two chakras (sacral and lumbar) are concerned primarily with the ascending creative fire and its structuring to control the two gross-level vehicles beyond the physical, the desire and mental bodies, which we must create to possess consciousness. The next set of chakras concerns itself with direct communication to those planes.

The solar chakra, visible in most reasonably developed humans, lies just above the navel, connects itself directly with the desire body and allows us contact with the emotional structure of the Desire Plane.

[Note: This is the chakra governing self-will, the center through which the individual may be "possessed" by an entity from the lower Astral or the Desire Plane.]

Heart Chakra

The next chakra on the ascending line, located slightly above the heart in the physical, is the heart chakra. It penetrates the heart and drives its contact into the mid-thoracic spine. The heart chakra brings us into contact with the Mental Plane and the concrete and illumined thought processes existing respectively on the lower and upper mental levels.

Throat, Brow and Crown Chakras

We see the next chakra, known in Sanskrit as the vishuddha , the speaking or throat chakra, physically hovering above the throat and this brings us to the level of communication, of hearing and speech, physical, desire and mental. The empowering and boosting of this chakra gives us direct understanding of what is happening on the planes and in realms that we have contacted through the lower chakras.

The last two chakras exist for our particular evolutionary level within the brain, interpenetrating the brain tissue and powering the pituitary and pineal glands respectively, the master controlling glands of our endocrine system.

The brow chakra, the ajna, is the two-petaled lotus seen in the vast majority of Oriental sculptures and paintings as a visible bulge between the eyes of those who are enlightened and awakened. This chakra confers the power of sight, again on those planes that we have conquered in the lower physical, those to which we have access, and gives us an intimate and direct understanding of the processes necessary for our further growth.

The final chakra is the only one that does not connect through one of our own created bodies but acts as a final tap beyond the needs of emotion, thought or physical survival, directly to our own Oversoul and beyond our Oversoul to God. The crown chakra, the sahasarara padme, the thousand-petaled lotus, gives us direct and intimate knowledge of our necessary paths and acts, not only in a downward manner but also in an upward fashion.

This is the only chakra or lotus through which we can direct Light to others. The golden crowns of the twenty-four elders, the crowns that they continually cast down at the feet of God, represent the up welling of the crown chakra that can be "cast down" or given out repeatedly because its Source is above, because the crown grows again as rapidly as it can be cast at the feet of God.

So, the thousand-petaled lotus serves as the final tap beyond the physical, vital, desire and mental bodies directly to our own spiritual being and beyond to the Source of our life and Light. These are our communications channels to use, misuse, abuse, not to use at all, as we will and desire. The tools are there for our use, if we choose to pick them up.

How to Open the Chakras

The prana, the vital energy that structures and controls our physical body, is the tool by which we activate the chakras, one at a time. The prana is our key; it exists everywhere and can be drawn upon for our use. The prana gives us the key to kundalini, the sacred Creative Fire.

By focusing our pranic awareness on the sacral chakra, by opening our channels and by lifting ourselves, we bring up the kundalini, one level at a time, through each of our chakras. [Note: There should be no force of self-will used in this. The ideal method is to invoke and "let" the Light melt, dissolve and absorb all blockages or crystallization.] This opens communication, increases Light, the rotational velocity and the capacity, the size of each chakra in turn.

The structure of the chakras, lying at the surface of the vital body just beyond the physical, requires that a web be maintained between the very rarified, not quite visible in most people, etheric vital body and the entirely different desire body. The difference between the physical and the vital is merely one of degree of tenuousness, the difference between the vital and desire level is a difference of kind.

To prevent interpenetration of those planes prior to the ability of the individual involved to control and focus the information flowing from the Desire Plane, a web of mon-atomic, virtually impenetrable structure forms the "skin" of the vital body, penetrated only by the seven lotuses, the Temple of Seven Gates, sealed behind the Veil. This web is impenetrable save by terrible accident or deliberate abuse. The web itself is strong but only in the sense of being a semipermeable membrane that allows passage of specifically attuned vibrations and no other.

No energy not capable of using the atomic structure of both the physical plane and the Desire Plane may freely penetrate the vital web. The only penetration of the web that can occur is from the physical across to the Desire Plane. Nothing coming down can penetrate except through the lotus and chakra structures, the channel that has been deliberately left open for communication with those planes and realms.

Many are the individuals who through karma, through previous misuse, through loss of soul substance have created for themselves physical and vital body structures incapable of reaching what they know in their consciousness to be available to them. They are generally of an emotional nature incapable of the work, concentration, devotion and prayer necessary to reascend. Thus, the temptation is great and always present, for the forcible opening of that to which they no longer possess the key, to batter at the doors of the planes and realms begging for admittance. They know something is there that they cannot see, something they should have but do not.

They do not possess the mental qualities and emotional calm to take the time and work necessary to reacquire that key. Instead, such an individual takes a hammer and chisel and cuts his way through to the Desire and Mental Planes. These practices " the left-hand path of magic, the dark path, the use of so-called psychoactive chemicals " force a temporary gate into the lower Astral Plane [the area immediately surrounding earth], releasing tremendous emotional energies.

Depending upon the depth of the penetration into the lower astral, these energies affect the physical senses of perception, creating those phenomena known on the outer as visual and auditory hallucination, "seeing" and "hearing" things which simply have no physical being. But this still leaves the individual, when dropped back into the physical by termination of the action of his particular forcible hammer and chisel, without the key. Now, having been, if only in a gross sense at a low vibratory level, to the place he had previously known to exist, the desire to reactivate that opening becomes one of the predominating motivating factors in his life - to reaccess this place from which he seems to be sealed away.

Psychoactive Drugs

The psychoactive drugs include a wide range of chemicals causing temporary alteration of mood, of perception and of affect, temporary alterations of personality via access to channels not normally available to him at his stage of development. The psychoactive drugs act directly through the lotus and chakra structures. The reason these drugs can be classified into a subcategory in general - that is, those chemicals capable of effecting alteration within the physical body -is that they act directly upon the underlying physiologic nervous system, which is supported and driven by the input of the chakras.

What we're establishing here is a sort of inverse feedback. There are two ways of opening chakra function. One may activate the chakras by in-drawing greater Light, power, clarity and volume of information down from, for example our desire body - that body which exists upon the Desire Plane and which gives us the necessary information concerning our own emotional nature, emotional needs and the requirements of others, which process stimulates development of the faculty of empathy.

Or, one may chemically stimulate the denser physical structure [nerve plexus], which is wrapped around the stalk of the chakra between its bell-like opening and its spinal contact. This brings the chakra to a higher level of rotation, forcing vital material out through the bell, across the web into the Desire Plane. This forces a gate and one may push his way into a plane of material structure not normally available. That contact is held open for such time as the chemical involved can maintain the abnormal action of the nerve plexus surrounding the chakra.

As the drug itself is extracted from the bloodstream, broken down, detoxified and eliminated from the physical system, the physiologic nervous system returns to its normal level of function. The rotational velocity of the chakra slows to its normal pace, again sealing the barrier. Dependent upon the type of chemical structure and its vital components, the specific chakra which is boosted into rotation varies.

The psychoactive drugs can be subdivided for purposes of study into functional groupings rather than pharmacologic or toxicologic groups which share chemical structures. What we're looking for here are functional groups, not what the chemicals are, but which chakras they affect.

Stimulants: Amphetamines and Cocaine

Despite a wide variance in their atomic and molecular structure, the group of central nervous system stimulants includes amphetamines , commonly called "speed," the wide range of substances, related functionally though not structurally, known as amphetamine cogenors and the non-amphetamine stimulant cocaine . [Other central nervous system stimulants include "crystal meth," methylphenidate, phenmetrazine and strychnine.]

These drugs are sympathomimetic boosters, drugs which activate and bring the physical body's sympathetic nervous system to a higher level of operation. The primary plexus and external input point of the sympathetic nervous system lies within the solar chakra, the gate to the desire body and the Desire Plane.

So with the chronic consumption of stimulant substances, we find an individual who does seemingly - and "seem" is the most important part of all of this - to gain an incredible sensitivity to emotion, who becomes sensitized to the unspoken feelings of others, who begins to draw information from sources that don't appear to exist on the physical. Because this information is channeled through the lower astral, the structuring of this emotional input tends to be negative. The primary source and nature of input from the lower Astral Plane is that of threat, and the response is self-protection.

This is an early chakra, only the third up. We are talking about an early mammalian structure, one we share with all animals on the earth. It is a sympathetic structure, mammalian in characteristic, owing its pattern to the second part of the triune brain structure, the limbic system, the seat of emotion. This operational system of protection is the one which alerts us to danger.

Information forced backward through this system, including all the emotions which we tend to gather from those around us and funneled through this particular mechanism, is interpreted in the sense of threat. The maximum negative connotation is placed on each thought, emotion and contact made on the lower Astral and Desire Planes.

As a result, after a short period of time, we begin to watch the stimulant abuser alter in his affectual performance, in the way in which he relates to those people from whom he draws these emotional messages. We begin to see the development of the classic paranoid psychotic personality, beginning with suspicion and hostility -over a period of time, growing more and more defensive in his reaction to any sort of emotional stimulus.

But the emotional stimulus remains invariable. The stimulant user cannot cut off the emotional stimulus without discontinuing use of the drug and as long as emotional stimulus continues, it must be interpreted in the sense of a physiologic threat. There is no other interpretational mechanism available to this person, who has not opened the chakra to receive information but has torn the veil to grasp information.

During the early portion of this developing personality change, the gate can be closed; at the cost of emotional stress, yes, but closed nonetheless. Discontinuance of the stimulant substance will seal the chakra because the individual's developmental level is insufficient to enable him to open that chakra of his own self-will. As the process continues, as the dosage increases due to the effect of physiologic tolerance, more and more of the substance is required to boost the sympathetic nervous system to that level of activity that will open and rotate the solar chakra.

As more of the drug is taken, more volatized material is forced through the vital web and a point is reached where the process is no longer reversible. Remember, the vital web is a semipermeable membrane, and like all such membranes, it is incredibly effective in its task, very powerful in the one function for which it was designed and very weak everywhere else. All of its structure and its physical interconnection is designed for one purpose, the passage of specifically attuned energies in one direction. To all other stresses it is a very delicate, tissue-like membrane.

With sufficient dosage over a sufficient period of time, the vital web itself will be breached; a hole will be torn in the vital web directly above the solar chakra in the barrier between the physical and the lower Astral and Desire Planes. At this point, we have an individual of relatively low development, poor discipline, inadequate emotional and mental structuring, who is exposed to an unceasing and unstoppable flow of emotional and apparently very threatening, threatening, threatening data, one who is incapable of shutting off the flow of information from the lower astral through the solar chakra and the flow is pouring into an undefended nervous system.

The individual has ceased to be sane in the outer sense of the term. He is no longer in control of or even protected by his own vehicles.

This is the condition which we refer to on the outer as chronic stimulant psychosis. The effect of constantly maintained and increased quantities of stimulant drugs being poured into the physical results in a tear, a breach in the vital web, leaving this particular individual undefended against imagery.

There is no mentation; the input is never clearly understood because the individual is still two chakras below the possibility of understanding. But there is impression, feeling, emotion in the rawest sense without capability of understanding, fear, the "fight or flight" reflex toward that which cannot be understood. An individual who has become, for all intents and purposes, insane.

There is frequently an irreparable breach in this individual's personality. The possibility of reestablishing a secure web over the solar chakra is minuscule. So, this individual has taken this incarnation and dropped it somewhere. Previous development is lost in an overwhelming flood of emotional impressions beyond the control of this drug-abusing individual. The personality, the mind is swamped in a flood of emotional impressions over which he no longer has control.

We see an individual who is literally leaking vitality, whose vitality being taken in through the splenic chakra and distributed to the body in normal fashion, is now venting through a rent in the vital web. We watch his physical health and vitality decline for no apparent reason, since his body may still seem to be in fine shape.

He is breathing, eating and doing all the things one is supposed to do but he's missing the other component; his vitality is pouring out through the rent in the web. We watch his physical health begin to slide downhill as his perceptual distortion increases. The greater the degree of distortion, the more leakage through the web, the more extreme becomes the loss of health. Physical structures begin to fail for no apparent reason.

The most common problem for this individual in terms of his long-term health is, of course, seated in the next chakra up; this is where the drain occurs. What we see is a very rapid degradation of the physiologic circulatory system, which is innervated and structured by the heart chakra. As energy is drained, the cardiovascular system begins to collapse. So this very rapid degradation of physical health, centered in the cardiovascular system, drains the vitality as the rent in the web itself drains the vital structures.

We now have an individual who is, to all intents and purposes, capable of no further development within this incarnation. The web which constructs and holds the vital body has been damaged beyond repair.

Depressants: Alcohol, Tranquilizers and Sedatives

The central nervous system depressant drugs are the next primary grouping of psychoactive substances. They include alcohol, the rather wide range of miscellaneous chemical lumped together by the media under the generic concept of "glue-sniffing" (amyl nitrate butyl nitrate and spray paint), the inhalation of various solvent products (glue, toluene, etc.), tranquilizers, calmatives, sedative hypnotics (alcohol, barbiturates, chloral hydrate, meprobamate and methaqualone) and narcotics (codeine, heroin, methadone and morphine). This particular series of drugs holds its fascination for the human race because of the fact that they are cerebral drugs affecting primarily the cerebrospinal system.

Primary effects here are within the throat and brow chakras, sealing off the lower chakras from the upper, leaving the desire body and the mental body isolated from the physiologic brain. Because of this shut-off, we find the user of central nervous system depressants to demonstrate a widely variable affect during early periods of intoxication. The mental and emotional natures slide out of sync with one another, no longer driven from above, still being powered from below but without the direction and control necessary for their equal and coordinate function.

As the solar and heart chakras slide out of synchronization with the initial dosages of these drugs, we see the pattern known as successive central nervous system intoxication. The pattern of intoxication with these drugs descends from the cerebrum to the vital functions provided by the lower central nervous system, the medulla, the pons and the spinal cord itself.

Physiologically, this brings about the very real possibility of death as the actual physiologic functions are suppressed. On the outer level though, what we're looking at is a lack of coordination and a loss of synchronization between and among the physical, desire and mental bodies as their inputs begin to enter the central nervous system out of phase and out of coordination. This process very frequently results in a partial dislocation of the vital body. As the energy structure, the pranic structure that forms the vital body and the chakras themselves are forced out of synchronization, the vital body is shifted and begins to lose synchronization with its denser physical substrate.

With both throat and brow chakras affected, hallucinosis is a common and very easily repeatable phenomenon with this type of intoxication. The functions of "seeing" and "hearing" at all levels begin to lose their coordination and the individual slides in and out of sync at both the desire and mental levels. He is able to see and hear upon occasion at both or one or the other levels and moments later is unable to see or hear at either, losing track of his physiologic position as the vital body periodically dis-coordinates with his physical, losing track not only of what room he's in but of what plane he is occupying at any given moment.

So the individual becomes acutely uncoordinated, begins to lose track of mentational processes and then is abruptly in a state of crystalline clarity, is at one moment laughing and at the next moment weeping, at one moment elated and the next moment depressed as he slides in and out of synchronization with himself and his own other vehicles.

The messages through the solar and heart chakras are losing coordination, losing synchronicity and, most importantly, losing the drive and control represented by the throat and brow chakras. This presents the individual with a constantly changing spectrum of physical input, none of which can be either coordinated or reconciled with the physical knowledge of who he is, where he is or what he's doing.

This slippage in and out of the lower planes of consciousness is similar to what we saw with the stimulant abuser. It is for this reason that many people consider alcohol to be a stimulant. It's been written up in much literature as being a stimulating drug when, in fact, it is a physiological depressant and a depressant only. It has no stimulating physical effect; the stimulating effect is on the desire body.

The use of alcohol, of course, predates the use and, in fact, the availability of the vast majority of psychoactive drugs. Alcohol has been used as a tool of consciousness manipulation since long before we established any written records. If we look back along the akasha (the etheric record of all events occurring within the time-space continuum), it's very difficult to find a time when alcohol was not a predominant technique for opening the channels to the planes. Alcohol in itself being a rapidly vocalized chemical, presents us with access to the lower astral with relative ease.

Because of the dual function of depressant drugs, affecting two chakras and cutting off two, throwing them out of sync, the possible set of physiologic and vital interactive chakra reactions is much wider than that which we see with the stimulant drugs, which is a limited process affecting primarily one chakra and affecting it basically in only one direction.

Here we have an interplay of four chakras being affected, two isolated and two intoxicated, with a "playing" reaction moving back and forth across the lower planes. This opens a much wider range of possible damage to the structures involved. And so we see an unpredictable but clearly toxic response in the chronic abuser of these substances.

It is literally impossible to know which of these four affected chakras is going to give out first. All we know is that if the abuse isn't stopped, one of them is going to give out sooner or later. Again, this places an abnormal strain on the vital web, not boosting the action of any of the nerve plexuses and, therefore, not placing the individual in the same danger of tearing the web but placing an abnormal strain upon it, forcing the chakras to attempt rotational velocity in the absence of any control.

There is a possibility of a tear in the web similar to what we saw in the stimulant abuser. It's not the invariable kind of process where if you don't stop it's going to happen but there is a distinct possibility of this occurrence. The condition of delirium tremens (ITS), with its associated visual and auditory hallucinations is one possible outcome of this process.

Far more likely and the more usual result of chronic overindulgence in depressant drugs, is a stiffening, a deadening, a thickening of the vital web. This apparently results from a kind of defense mechanism against the possibility of rupture. The vital web barrier begins to thicken, to become denser, to attempt to shut down this flow of uncoordinated, unstructured impulses. So, in the majority of cases, we see the chronic depressant abuser slowly becoming less and less sensitive to the normal message flow from his alternate vehicles, a slow deadening of the emotional processes, a loss of empathy, sympathy and desire to aid or help other beings as the web over the solar chakra begins to cut off the individual, over a period of months or years, from his own emotional nature. It becomes more and more difficult for him to feel anything.

As the depressant drug is withdrawn and coordination reestablishes itself, suddenly a burst of pent-up emotionality, all of the clouds of emotional structure that have built up within his desire body unfelt and unacted upon, pour through the chakra into the physical. The withdrawing depressant abuser is flooded with feelings of remorse, terror and anger as he is overwhelmed by these massive clouds of emotion that have built up within the desire body, incapable of venting, with nowhere to go. This may itself trigger periods of physiologic collapse, loss of actual structuring abilities within the physical.

At this point, we frequently see episodes of convulsions of near epileptic nature along with the flooding of emotion, the flooding of both sight and hearing from the Mental and lower planes. The individual is swamped in a sea of hallucinosis, guilt, fear and the loss of physiologic function we see in convulsion, This overall breakdown of structure is what we refer to as DTs, the classic symptom of alcohol and barbiturate withdrawal as the physical body is flooded with previously uncoordinated and unutilized information.

Depressants: Narcotics

With the narcotics (codeine, heroin, methadone and morphine), more so than with the other depressants, we tend to see a far more specific kind of picture. Having much more clearly specified areas of involvement within the central nervous system and having nowhere near the broad, general intoxicating properties of other depressant drugs, we see an individual who seals himself off at the level of the solar chakra.

There is very little effect within the mentational area except during the intoxication itself and then generally a slowing rather than a boosting of activity. So, during the period of intoxication, there is little or no mental capability because there is little or no communication with the mental body, very little cerebration at all. There are limited flows of emotion, which do not tend to reawaken themselves upon withdrawal, a very slow but steady accretion of material at the opening of the solar chakra resulting in a slow, steady diminution of emotional input.

The individual becomes isolated emotionally, though not mentally, loses contact with one of his vehicles and finds himself completely sealed off from any possibility of emotional empathetic interaction with others. He is still in full possession of a physical, vital and mental body but lacks all contact with his desire body.

This process leaves the individual, as we mentioned in the beginning, intensely frustrated because the knowledge of what 'should be there- cannot be eradicated but the contact is lost and he has no way of reacquiring that contact. Here, it is not because of a sealed chakra, which he does not have the ability to open, but because of a sealed off chakra which cannot be opened, one that not longer has the possibility of communicating informational flow back and forth between the Desire Plane and the physical.

This individual is now, to all intents and purposes, permanently sealed off from his own emotional nature and finds himself incapable of that one thing which most clearly separates us from all other life, which is empathy. This literally leaves a shell of a human being.

The interaction of the forebrain with the cerebrum results in judgments such as "that's not nice, that is nice, that's wrong." For the narcotics abuser, "that's wrong" is gone. For this individual there is only "that's right." There is no longer proper, loving or caring - simply right. So the individual becomes, in the truest sense of the word, egocentric, locked within his own mind, incapable of extending his feelings toward other people, not unwilling but, in fact, incapable of reaching through to understand what another human being needs.

Beyond the possibility of complete divorcement of the vital body from the physical, the intense likelihood of damage that we see with stimulants abuse does not frequently occur with depressants abuse. What we do see is the slow sinking into unfeeling and loss of emotion.

Death occurs from depressant abuse due to the depression of the vital physical centers and the dislocation of the vital body from the physical. When the vital body breaks down completely, when the chakras lose their integration from the nervous centers they empower, you have a lump of clay. It has all the cells, chemicals, oxygen and glucose and none of the life. And this shell just falls to the floor, lacking now the driving principle of life.

The abrupt overdose sort of death is the eventual end result of overindulgence in this particular group of drugs, rather than the intensely aware, in fact, too aware result of the chronic abuse of stimulants. The dislocation of the vital body from the physical results in death. With the chronic abuser of depressants, there is a slow loss of function resulting in an individual no longer fully in contact with the rest of reality, no longer fully in contact with the remainder of his race.

Dependant again upon dosage, frequency and duration of abuse, mental function may be slowly lost. It's a much slower process than sealing off the solar chakra but the heart chakra will eventually be affected in much the same fashion. Then we see the slow, steady loss of mental function that we find in the "wino" or "drunk," the individual who has now most the mental contact, who now exists in a body that has neither mind nor emotion but simply exists.

Hallucinogens and Psychedelics

The psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs of great publicity and popularity, although of ages old availability, form the next group of psychoactives. [This group includes antihistamines, belladonna, cannabis [marijuana, hashish and THC], datura, DET, DMT (bufotenine), DOET, DOM, DOP, DPT, ditran and analogs, harmines, ibogaine, MDA, MDMA [Ecstasy, 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine] , psilocybin and psilocin, nonbarbiturate sedatives and STP.

The hallucinogenic drugs currently available on the street are of two basic types: the tropine hallucinogens (related to atropine) and the dissociative anesthetics. The atropine hallucinogens are probably the oldest of the mind manipulators, the ancient shamanistic drugs: deadly nightshade (belladonna), mandrake, jimpson weed and henbane. The majority of hallucinogenic drugs available now on the streets are from such plant sources, although there are 80 to 90 synthetic substitutes that are also hallucinogenic.

At the other end of the spectrum are the most advanced of the synthetics, the dissociative anesthetics. Science has named them better than it knows, for they are truly dissociative drugs capable of detaching the consciousness. They include PCP (phencyclidine), moon dust, angel dust, CK or KJ, etc. PCP was originally developed as an anesthetic then banned form human use because it caused hallucinations. When you put someone under with PCP, he loses all trace of physical consciousness because he has been shoved straight off this physical plane.

These drugs differ primarily in plane of exit. Those drugs we call hallucinogenic are drugs which exit basically on the lower astral. Hallucinogens can bring the vibratory level to that point and no higher; they may, in fact, reduce perceptual input from the physical to the point of nonexistence by activating the solar chakra, boosting the activity of the throat chakra to give "sight" and "hearing" but again, without understanding. If you don't have the key, you break down the door.

Exiting into the lower astral is a terrifying experience. It's frightening when done deliberately for the purpose of practice. Being catapulted into the lower astral is an experience that few conscious individuals are capable of tolerating. Almost invariably, a period of severe sensory distortion follows from such an exit. And even if recovery from the episode is without any major sequelae (recurrences called "flashbacks"), there is generally a period of perceptual distortion ten days to two weeks, even if there is no permanent, on-going problem.

This may include an inability to decipher incoming messages, to differentiate material leaking into the body from the lower astral from those primary perceptions through the physical organs of sense being routed via normal brain channels. We find sight/vision overlays of lower astral beings and physical beings without the capability of differentiating them.

The acute sequelae of this kind of experimentation can be permanent and drastic, very similar to the results of chronic cocaine or amphetamine abuse. A permanent breach is opened onto the lower astral with, in this sense, the very real possibility of ejection of the higher consciousness from the body, a complete shut-off of upper mentational channels, leaving a body that breathes but doesn't think, an individual who has become in Western terminology, catatonic, a person no longer present on the mental level and flooded with the emotional input, with material from the lower astral.

Basically then, a person who has by his own action become a permanent resident of the lower astral, no longer capable of expression on the physical, still possessing a physical body but without the necessary controls to activate or utilize that body. His entire consciousness, his whole personality is now trapped on the lower astral. All his sensory input is from that plane rather than this.

These people are permanently locked out of their own physical vehicles. This is a real possibility with any drug that opens this particular set of channels, that simultaneously opens the lower astral and the faculties of sight and hearing. Without training and discipline in these areas, this distance between the physical and the lower astral is zero; you exist simultaneously in both places. Without the training of crossing in and out of the physical while conscious, while knowingly manipulating the chakras, it is not possible for this person to find his way back to his own physical.

This same possibility of "getting lost" does exist with the use of the so-called psychedelic drugs, which differ from the hallucinogens on the basis of opening several more chakras. The true psychedelic drugs are basically related to the brain chemical serotonin, a neurotransmitter. The neurotransmitters, serotonin and dopamine, form the physical structure for these drugs, which is why they maintain mentation-al faculties while exiting the individual onto the planes.

The psychedelics duplicate the brain's own internal neurotransmitters. LSD , the most potent of the group and one of the most potent drugs known, is capable of affecting the body in microgram dosages because, again, it is so close to the brain's own neurotransmitters that the body responds to it as being an internally-generated biochemical. LSD, LSM, the whole series of three-letter compounds containing "L" are named to indicate that lysergic acid is part of their compound. Lysergic acid is the central ring-structure of both serotonin and dopamine.

Mescaline forms, by itself, the pure barrier between the stimulants and the psychedelics. Half of its structure barely mimics brain chemical structure, while the other half looks like amphetamine, so it has qualities of both. It is a very old shamanistic drug, a vegetable-source mind manipulator.

Another very old drug of much the same qualities as LSD is peyote , the sacred mushroom and the drugs that contain psilocybin and psilocin - again, very close imitators of brain chemical structure and primarily of the psychedelic category.

Marijuana is a low-potency psychedelic by functional structure. It's the lowest known potency of any of these drugs but clearly falls into the category of pure psychedelic substances.

The borderline psychedelic-stimulants are drugs which have undergone tremendous development over the last few years. These borderline psychedelics - which I generally refer to as psycho-dysleptics, from the Greek, "to seize the mind roughly" - are drugs that have been developed by private industry and the Department of Defense for use in military applications.

These are drugs of extremely potent combined stimulant-psychedelic side effects. As fast as Dow Chemical turned them out in the 60s, they wound up on the streets - these were the drugs that caused the majority of "bad trips" during the late 60s, drugs like STP and TMA . They are basically very sophisticated modifications of mescaline. This series of drugs has much greater potential for adverse reaction than do the classical psychedelics but they do fall into that structural category.

All these drugs access the lower Astral, the Desire and Psychic Planes as well as the Mental, so the range of perceptual change is greater. Often described in the literature are "tasting colors" and "seeing sounds" which are physical descriptions of mental body activities. Its complex mental process is being visualized as the experiences would occur within the mental body. Because the mental process is still available, it is less likely although distinctly possible, that the consciousness will be ejected from the body and will no longer be able to reaccess the physical.

Again, the key here is the solar chakra gate to the lower Astral and the Desire and Psychic Planes. This is the source of fear and terror. If the terror is controllable, then mental process will enable the individual to reaccess his body as the drug wears off. As the overall activity of the nerve plexus drops, as the chakra gates begin to close, the body will be drawn back to its original position, once again safely ensconced within its physical.

If fear overcomes the mental ability, if the individual gives way to the terrifying images found on the lower astral, then much the same process that is frequently seen with true hallucinogenic drugs may well occur. The person will become catatonic, will have had a "bad trip" from which he did not recover, will appear physically as a vegetable, a catatonic patient in a psychiatric facility.

In fact, he has been ejected from his own physical, is no longer capable of controlling his physical. He has become a permanent resident of the lower astral, locked out of the physical permanently. The odds of permanent ejection are less, the possibility is lower due to the presence of mental channels. Therefore the individual may be able to control, direct, avoid, get off the lower astral and up to a higher plane and stay there until the drug wears off, and then slowly be drawn back into the physical as we are drawn back each morning by the rebounding silver cord.

As long as the individual can maintain that mental process, we see the possibility of restoring normal communication channels. But the possibility is still there, access to the lower astral is still there and of course the primitive fear-threat response of the lower energy centers is still there to place him in the same kind of trouble. Although we are dealing with a significantly lower risk, we are still dealing with a risk of exactly the same type.

With these drugs there is the distinct possibility of engendering a more positive outcome. This is the process known as "talk-down," or to be more precise, "talk-in." Because the mental channels are open and the individual still has physical sight and hearing, this particular type of intoxication can be focused and directed from the outside. The individual can be guided back into the physical.

In the case of an adverse experience, the individual beginning to lose contact with who and where he is and what he's doing, this talk-down process can be instituted. This is the place where we see the greatest difference between the hallucinogenic and the psychedelic drugs, in the possibility of drawing the individual back by the action of someone who is willing to take that kind of responsibility on himself.

The psychoactive drugs have as their primary principle the ability to volatize into matter which is partially vital in nature and, therefore, to boost or to suppress the activity of a specific chakra via their interconnected physiologic structures. The possibilities then are the deadening of chakras, thickening of the web between the physical, emotional and mental and rending of the web through excessive force being used to push outward through the chakra instead of accepting the natural flow, an inward spiral of energy from the higher vehicles.

All the possibilities inherent in drug amplification of chakras are inherent in the chakras themselves. This attempt to grow, to learn, to expand the consciousness via the use of psychoactive chemicals is a process which can be operated more slowly but far more safely through other mechanisms. What we see here is not a willful act so much as an act of frustration and hostility. The individual finds himself lacking in something that he feels should be there, the dread and nameless fear, the feeling that something is not right, that something beyond "what is" should be.

This is the driver for the black magic, the left-hand path. This is the driver for chronic psychoactive chemical use, this frustration, a feeling of loss, a feeling of missing qualities. These are issues which we are going to have to deal with on a more and more frequent basis in this age of ascension. We are dealing with more and more egos being born into earth life at this time who have previously placed themselves in a position of loss of contact, who are being brought through on the physical with incomplete or inadequately structured desire and mental bodies.

The fact that they cannot make those contacts does not change the fact that they know those contacts should be there. And what they feel is not "nothing," but a sense of loss. How they go about rectifying that loss is dependant upon the people, the schools, the lessons that are available to them.

Without support, without guidance, without lifting, these people are inevitably pushed into the use of force, into at-tempts to break into that to which they no longer have the keys. Our purpose during this age of ascension must be to give keys to those individuals to open what they have lost, to what they know they have lost, whether or not they can verbalize that loss. Without those keys, without our empathy, without our willingness to give, then we stand by and allow our brother to walk off a cliff.

The search will go on. They will attempt to find their way back through whatever tools they seem to have available by whatever mechanism they can. If no other mechanism is made available to them, then these destructive but at least temporarily effective processes will be the route they take. they're easier to find and implement, they require no study, direction or control and so they are the easiest paths to be found. Guidance, direction, lifting for all those who are lost, for all those who have lost contact with their higher vehicles and consciousness-this is what we have to give.

Questions and Answers

Can you mix drugs and ascension of consciousness?

It's obvious that if you're going to ascend, you cannot use crutches like that, or you block the very path you're climbing.

You said that once the vital web is torn, it's almost impossible to repair but what you said at the end - guidance, direction, lifting - is the way, yes?

Yes. Healing, what we call lifting, healing or restructuring. This kind of thing is an even greater drain on those who would do it than the lifting of emotion and thought. To bring someone back, they must patch a hole that has been torn but it is a tremendous drain. That's why I said "almost impossible." Nothing is fully impossible, but it is very difficult, a very draining process to achieve.

You must literally "knit" a patch of very dense, very highly structured material made of very, very fine substance. It takes not only an energy flow as one would do in healing a physical disease, to clear a congested chakra or untangle a chakratic structure but to actually create a new patch, not only of the vital body itself, which is relatively tenuous but of that outer skin, which although of the same material, is knitted to an incredible density to shield between the two planes - this requires a tremendous amount of Power.

If you could lift these people to that point where the lifesparks from the Oversoul are available, could that substance be descended to fill the breach?

Yes. It takes a tremendous amount of holding on a situation like this, but if we could stand and hold long enough, it could be done, even here. It would be hard, but nothing is fully impossible.

What about when they cross over? What happens to them? How do they work it from that side? If they come back, will they still come back with a deficiency?

They do come back with a deficiency. What we see again is the same kind of pattern. So, it's a repetitive thing until someone takes the time, the strength and the effort to hold, to patch what's been done so they may come back at least "even," with a set of intact vehicles in the next incarnation.

What role do nutrients play in reducing the problem?

At this level, none. Nutrients do provide a little more rapid repair on the physical side of the damage done to physical nervature - particularly sodium, potassium and calcium, the vital nerve nutrients - but the damage that's done to the vital web itself, as it becomes strained and thickened, is relatively unresponsive to physical nutrition. This must and can be cleared only by a "Power transfusion," a lift. The Light must be supplied to repair the vital structure.

Physical nutrition will slow the loss of function and damage to the dense physical body, but it has relatively little effect on the vital body. The vital body is composed almost entirely of vitality globules, the prana that has previously been drawn into the body, utilized, and then expelled to create the vital body hovering over the physical. This pranic structure is what's in need of repair.

Is it worthwhile to repair the physical to buy time until Light does the work?

Certainly. Maintaining the physical is required if you're going to hold the person on earth. You must keep them physically alive while working on the other damage. The loss of vitality, particularly if the web is rent, is like watching the person drain, like punching a hole in a can of water.

Is this web physical matter?

Yes, physical, but very tenuous. It's physical matter drawn into a very tight, multiply-bonded structure.

Will the same process that originally built the web then repair it?

Yes.

And that process is always available?

Yes. But again, the individual is losing vitality through the rent and this makes it very difficult for him to change once the damage has been done, because he's losing prana as fast as he can inhale it. The healing process must be started for him, from the outside, because it is very difficult for one who is losing vitality from every orifice to do any restructuring. He just doesn't have the reserve to build anything. Everything he brings in is going to maintain the current physical status, and he's slowly losing ground even at that.

Why are some people very sensitive to these drugs?

Drug sensitivity goes with physical evolvement. As you ascend, you become sensitized to many kinds of chemicals. The greater the input from your other body vehicles and the more consciously you draw on them for information and ascension, the more sensitive you become to potential toxins within your own physical body.

The Fiery Wheel
Astrology: New Light on an Old Subject

November 7, 1981
Cleveland, Ohio

"Behold . . . A Wheel"
Astrology: Foundation and Key
Marge Pauls

How many of you read the horoscopes in the daily newspapers? If you're like me, you do it out of curiosity, just to see what it says. Most people today regard astrology as a harmless indulgence for readers of horoscopes in newspapers, as an irritating remnant of medieval superstition, or in fascination for something that is not well understood. However, our scientific, rational way of looking at things is less revealing and less helpful than the symbolic ways used by great civilizations of the past. Astrology is one important aspect of these symbolic ways.

The River of Astrology has many tributaries, all of which join a mainstream whose source is ancient Babylon. All these tributaries touch on: Religion, politics, magic, art, literature, music, medicine and time. Astrology doesn't offer an explanation of the laws of the universe or why the universe exists, but it does reveal that there is rhythm to the universe, and man's own life is part of this rhythm.

Beginnings: The sky is an inescapable part of the environment of all men. Primitive man first worshiped the sun out of love and/or fear. In Europe, the sun was man's savior from the glaciers, in the tropic zones it was murderous. Man knew the sun was responsible for seasonal changes and that life on earth depended on its heat; it was easy to see how man began to worship the sun as a god. Just a short step further was the deification of the moon and stars.

As civilization developed, the accurate measurement of time became important. Time is measured from the movements of the heavenly bodies; therefore, astronomy is essential to the formation of calendars. All civilizations that had a calendar also had a system of astrology and astronomy.

Babylon: The source of astrology was in the fertile crescent of the Middle East. The priests of Babylon set the pattern for the development of astronomy and the zodiacal system we know today. They lived in an area blessed with extremely clear skies and built towers on flat areas to scan the horizons, as well as the heavens. Living secluded lives in the monasteries next to their towers, the Babylonian priests discovered five planets besides the sun and moon. They also discovered that the laws which govern the stars also govern events on earth. While observing movements of stars and planets, they noted corresponding earthly events, i.e., floods, wars, rebellions, etc. The information they gathered was presented to their king, who had the reports bound and placed in the royal library. These reports were preserved by the Assyrians after the conquest of Babylon.

The Babylonians first thought the planets themselves were actually gods. Later, they came to believe that gods were separate from the planets but ruled through them. A highly complex system was set up in which each planet was ascribed a set of attributes. They believed that each sign of the Zodiac was the sun in whatever capacity that sign indicated; i.e., Aquarius was the sun in its capacity as rain-giver because January marked the heaviest rainfall in Babylon.

The Babylonians worshiped fire, water, earth and air, and invented the alchemical elements. Up until about 600 B.C.E., they used astrology exclusively for information as to weather, propitious times to war or to conduct state affairs, or for guidance in day-to-day activities. Individual horoscopes were first cast about 600 B.C.E., and the use of astrology soon degenerated into a method of weeding out the malcontents.

Chaldea: In Hebrew, "chaldee"means "magician." The name of their major city, Ur, meant "light." Originally, Chaldeans referred to the inhabitants of Chaldea or lower Mesopotamia. Later the word was used to indicate the Assyrio-Babylonian astrologers. In Hellenic times, Chaldeans was a title conferred upon Greeks who studied in Babylonian schools and, finally, it became the name given to anyone who claimed to foretell the future by the stars.

Greece: If the Babylonians invented the substance of astrology, the Greeks gave it form. They departed from the heliocentric system and discovered that the spring equinox is not fixed in relation to the ecliptic and defined the precession of the equinoxes. The signs are now fixed to the equinox and are unrelated to the constellations they once represented. The Greeks believed that mythological heroes resided in the sky and that the soul rose up after death, was purified by the elements as it ascended, and finally found a peaceful resting place in the uppermost zone of the afterlife. Sometimes a god was on hand to help it along. They also believed that the soul descended to earth through planetary spheres, gaining different earthly qualities from each. The soul had to reascend, shedding these qualities, to arrive at the uppermost level pristine and pure.

They believed that men became masters of their fate by the exercise of free will and that celestial movements were signs of possibilities, not causes of the future.

Druids/Celts: The Druids and Celts worshiped the moon and stars as destinations of departed souls and believed that the soul passed from one heavenly body to another as it experienced successively more exalted states of existence. They were convinced of the existence of a future life and lent money with the understanding that it would be repaid in the other world.

It was the Druids and Celts who created megaliths (like Stonehenge) for the purpose of marking solstices and other important astronomical events so that they could keep calendars.

Mithraism: This was a middle-eastern religion adopted by the Romans and brought by them to Britain. It had seven stages of initiations, representing the soul's journey through the seven planetary levels to the outermost seventh heaven. In ceremonial rites, celebrants wore masks representing animals of the Zodiac.

Egypt: The Persians brought astrology to Egypt in 600 B.C.E., although the Egyptians had actual star lore long before that time. Astronomical texts have been found on coffin lids dating back to 2100 B.C.E..

The Egyptian calendar was invented for agricultural purposes and was very simple compared to the Babylonian version. It had twelve months of thirty days each, with five days extra at the end of the year. They divided day and night into periods of twelve hours each. The Egyptians interpreted the cosmos in terms of perpetual war between forces of light and darkness.

Rome: The Romans were influenced from three sources: Soothsayers and diviners claiming knowledge of Chaldean astrology, their poets and thinkers who were inspired by astrological symbolism, and their religious life. Some of them saw the universe as the work of an all-powerful creator who arranged the celestial bodies to move and exercise their influences in a beautiful pattern.

Roman priests gave their emperors a religious justification for despotism. The emperor became the image of the sun on earth, having come down from heaven to rule as the sun's regent.

Israel: Lower and cruder forms of star worship were forbidden to the Jews, but most Jewish priests and scholars showed an acquaintance with and respect for the higher principles of Chaldean astrology. Later, the more mystical-minded Jews were among the foremost exponents of astrology when it came to Europe.

China: The Chinese culture was based on the Babylonian system and remnants of the Babylonian cuneiform writing can be seen in the Chinese characters used today. The Chinese had a propensity for looking at things in numbers, especially in groups of threes and fives. For example, there were three kinds of heavenly light: sun, moon, stars. There were three kinds of abundance: good fortune, abundant sons, abundant years. The sky was divided into five palaces, one central main palace and four others corresponding to the seasons.

Their system is based on the concept of yin and yang: yin being representative of the feminine moon, darkness and rest, while yang is representative of the masculine sun, brightness and motion. The Chinese Zodiacal path is set up into twelve signs divided like houses, each one named with a special animal, i.e., rat, ox, tiger, hare, etc.

The emperor was considered to be a copy of the celestial emperor whose throne was the pole star around which the heavens revolved. The emperor always faced south, like the pole star, while his subjects always looked north toward him. The Chinese New Year starts when the sun and moon are conjunct in Aquarius.

India: India was influenced by the Greeks, but traces its ancestry back to Babylon. They believed that karma is the process of the soul through incarnations, conditioned by free will and fate, and astrology was used to determine which state a man's soul had reached. They also determined that each month of pregnancy was governed by a planet depending upon the developmental stage of the child at that time.

Japan: The Japanese believed that there was once a floating bridge between earth and heaven upon which the gods used to travel. One day, when the gods were all asleep, the bridge fell, stranding some of the gods on earth. These gods are ever trying to reascend into Heaven.

Other Cultures: The Polynesians had two hundred named and identifiable stars. They also knew the sun, moon and five planets, and were able to identify the solstices. They had a calendar like the Egyptians.

The Mayan priest-astrologers had towers for viewing the heavens and horizon like the Babylonians, but the Mayan knowledge of astronomy was more accurate. The Mayans had a calendar of 365 days which they adjusted one day every four years.

The Aztecs also thought in terms of perpetual war between light and darkness, just as the Egyptians did.

The Gnostics were a Christian sect who believed salvation depended not on faith but on knowledge and acting upon basic truth about man's relation to God and the cosmos.

The Christians were divided between the acceptance of astrology or rejecting it totally. The fall of astrology is attributed to Augustine, who banned it, but more toward the widespread decline of learning in the Middle Ages.

Astrology and astronomy were divided with Copernicus in the mid-sixteenth century, although astrology lived on in the Arab world. The Arabs used astrology to help catch thieves and recover lost or stolen possessions, and also to help find the best moment to carry out tasks of everyday life. Astrology was returned to Europe by Thomas Aquinas and others reinvigorated and renewed.

It wasn’t until 1930 that the first astrological predictions appeared in English newspapers. This became the start of a widespread search for the hidden knowledge that became prominent only recently when Neptune (the planet of spirituality) was in Scorpio (the sign of mysteries).

Myth or Fact? In the foregoing synopsis, you might have noticed the underlying thread of similarity in the beliefs and customs of the cultures that developed as civilization and knowledge became more widespread. This thread of similarity invites a lot of questions that scientists really have no answers for, such as: Why did peoples all over the earth have virtually the same “delusion?”

Why are their gods and rites the same? Why are their teachings so similar, even to the primitive peoples of the aboriginal tribes?

One might also ask: If civilization is only about 7,000 years old, how could the ancients be aware of a heliocentric concept of the heavens? Who was it that drew the ancient maps (6,000 to 8,000 years old) that showed the continent of Antarctica with the same outlines that scientists have now proven exist today—under one hundred miles of ice? How can the ancient maps show the exact outlines of all the countries of the world? Where did the star maps of consciousness come from? Why do almost all cultures have a Father-Mother-Son concept with one supreme Creator over all? Why are all the creators equated with light? Why has every cosmology had a celestial leader (such as Christ) who was sent to retrieve man?

In most of the great cultures of the world, old tales tell of original men who were large, round, androgynous beings with four legs and arms, and who became so powerful they defied the gods. The gods, as punishment, caused the men to be split in two (having two arms and two legs each) and now each half is eternally searching for his other half, his soul mate. The gods and places of mythology are but metaphors for celestial activity. The ancients presented cosmic and religious beliefs with symbols modeled after material forms to assist expression of abstract concepts, yet they believed “as above, so below.” They also believed that at death, the soul traveled west following the setting sun, then right as far as it could go north. South, of course, was the Underworld, while east lay the River of Life. They stated that “those (men) who attain will become as gods."

As the ancients taught, psychics today tell us that it is to the planets we go when we die, returning to earth for reincarnation. The greatest planetary influence would then be from the planet that soul had just returned from. Cicero said that souls escaping from the "weary circle"(our solar system) are like stars—each soul is from a different star and minds are given to men out of the eternal fires called fixed stars.

Starships of the Soul: Although we carry a heaven within ourselves from our beginning, the ancients believed that the only way to ascend the soul was through initiations and purification through the light from the stars. To meet this end, they reached for the stars with the starship that are within each one of us.

Archaeologists have uncovered the Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara, which has lain dormant for at least forty-three centuries. It was a wonderful find because it was one of the few hitherto untouched pyramids, and scientists hoped it would shed light on some unexplained mysteries.

Engraved in the walls of the pyramid's chambers are texts telling of travelers to the stars who returned'specifically, King Unas, the "owner" of this particular pyramid. The texts praise Unas as a god, saying over and over again that Unas is "not dead," that his "heart has not been weighed,"and describes in perfect detail Unas' purification and flights to the circumpolar stars. Other parts of the texts spoke of travels to the stars and planets, and when the scientists broke open the sealed stone sarcophagus, there was nothing there!

The Egyptians believed that the soul, or "ka,"of the departed traveled to the Underworld, there to have his heart weighed on the scales of justice. How, then, did Unas escape this fate? Scientists had previously held that ancient robbers had plundered the pyramids, leaving no trace of the burial arrangements of the person for whom the pyramids were built. It has, however, become increasingly apparent that the pyramids were never meant to contain funereal remains.

The Egyptian pyramid passages point directly to the circumpolar stars, while the descending passage points to the celestial pole. It becomes clear, then, that the sarcophagi of the pyramids were used, not for the dead, but for the living, who needed a resting place for their physical body while they went about their work in their desire body, traveling to the stars and back.

Conclusion: Interesting, isn't it? It makes one wonder what the ancients knew that we have now forgotten, doesn't it? This opens up a whole new line of thinking and, of course, a lot more questions need answers. Consider these: How were those celestial beings that were sent to retrieve man able to return to heaven, taking their bodies with them? Were the ancients so adept at the art of astral projection that they were able to accurately chart the outlines of the countries of the world by simply rising above the earth and viewing it from this ascended level of consciousness? Could the new consciousness-raising, the new physics, and the new astrology be our seedling attempts to rediscover what our forefathers knew and practiced?

It is obvious that the originators of astrology were in direct conscious relationship with the life of the seven planets. They knew where they had come from and where they were going, and now we do, too. We came from the stars, and it is to there and beyond that we strive and struggle to return.

"A Wheel in the Midst of a Wheel"
Astrological Evolution of the Soul
Linda Mihalic

I saw many of you smiling and laughing and having a good time at lunch. If you are like me, your body is really attempting to digest everything you just put in it. Most of your blood is probably in your stomach right now, rather than your head! What I would like each of you to do with me, is to sit up straight, please, put your hands up and take in a big, deep breath. Let's do this three times.

Now, some of you know what that just did to you. For those of you who are really new to our specific teaching, what that did was to open you up to the Light, and you will hear a lot about the Light this afternoon. The Light is what moves through you, is with you, in you, and it is what you live in and move within and have your being in. Light is what composes everything you are, everything in the Universe. So with one deep breath, you’ve just opened your glands, all of your body's systems, to that Light Substance. On that note, we can begin.

Definition of Terms

Let's begin by defining the terms we'll be using. Whenever I go into anything new, I like to know exactly what the world has to say about it first, before making up my mind, and I've discovered that my way of thinking doesn't always jibe with what everybody else thinks. Now, astrology, the word itself, is a combination of two roots: “astro,” which means 'stars” (not planets, stars), and “logy,” which is “the study of.” Well, astrology, to us, has always pretty much been the study of the stars and the planets and their influence on homo sapiens, or thinking man. You’ve heard what was discussed this morning. There is a difference between existing, where you're just occupying space, and being a living, breathing, thinking, active person. So we're going to refer to ourselves right now as homo sapiens. we're going to look at ourselves in the context of everything else available out there.

The second term we need to take a look at is “evolution,” which the dictionary describes as “a gradual process of change from being simple in nature or in structure to becoming more complex in nature or structure.” When you were a child you thought simple things. you'd look at a tree when the leaves were falling down and you'd ask Mom, “Why do they fall down now, in autumn?” Didn’t you ask questions like that when you were a child? Sure you did, and you asked lots of other things, too. When I was five or six, I used to envision God as being this amazingly huge person and the planet earth as kind of like the fishbowl on our coffee table in the living room. That was the proportion, that was the distance between me and God — the way I pictured the difference between me and my fish. We all resided in the big fishbowl that sat on God's coffee table. And with relationship and proportion being what they are, you're going to discover that there are relationships like this which really do exist.

The last term to define is "soul.” Now, defining that one could take years, but for purposes of discussion today and just so we're all on common ground and understand each other, we're going to call the living soul the “animating spark of the divine.” We are going to think constantly and be aware that the soul is what empowers us to ascend with our body vehicles. And that same animating spark is what makes each one of us deathless, ageless and abiding. Now, those of you who are scholars of the Bible, you understand that this is also a description of God.

In the Beginning

Let's begin at the beginning, “In the beginning, God.” That's the English translation of the first words of the Bible. Well, astrophysicists have pretty well proven that our universe began in what was called the Big Bang, that at some dim and distant point in the past, everything that was or ever would be was gathered together, inbreathed in one point. If you know anything about atomic reaction, chain reaction, what happens is an incredible explosion. That was the Big Bang.

Marge talked to you this morning about the roots of astrology. There are just any number of cultures that taught about the world egg, the cosmic egg in their cosmology, and that one day it exploded and the world was there. Well, astrophysicists are proving that this myth is absolutely true. They have found things like background radiation in the universe which indicates that at one time something blew up massively, enough to leave that radiation and the traces of it throughout the universe.

So we're talking about an explosion of just unbelievable proportions, but from where to where? The Bible does say, in the English translation, that “In the beginning, God created.” It is a rather mild statement. But in the Hebrew text, upon which the English translations are based, there are only three words that say that same thing. In the English version it's five words. The Hebrews melted it down to just three words and, phonetically, it goes, “Bereshyt barah Elohim.” But the unbelievable equation is far more exciting than E = Mc2.

Conjure an image in your mind for a moment of one instant where there is apparently nothing and in the next, there is. Creation occurred in a short period of time — I mean you'd have to write thirty-nine or forty zeros in front of a ten to find the nth of a second, to find how short a time it took to create everything new. That ought to answer one of your questions about “isn't there some way to shortcut the process?” You can explode just like that, your consciousness can. You should imagine creation, then, as vigorous — it's almost violent because it's an explosion. The Hebrews believed that it was an affirmation of what they called the “creative immanence.”

Now, in the Christian tradition it's called the “creative fiat,” the moment in which God said, “Let there be Light,” and there was Light. It also, interpreted, implies a surge up and a revolving creation that continues and is deathless, ageless and abiding; and it also is very definitely a process. Creation was not an event. It is a process that continues today. Suddenly there is life, in all its beauty and all its glory, in its simplicity and its complexity — it's there. Just as the acorn contains the pattern for the entire oak tree, so does the creative fiat create the pattern and hold it for everything that you can think of and perceive at this moment. Not only here in this little room, but throughout the universe. God is truly doing business at the same old pop stand. What else could hold it together?

To understand the rest of these concepts, the evolution of our soul, the astrological evolution, we really do need a perspective. We need a perspective from outside of ourselves. we're asking a lot of you here today, to move outside yourselves, move up. Take another deep breath. Be open, because what you're going to hear may shock you. Only by standing outside yourself are you going to gain the perspective you need. Only then will we see the roots of all the patterns we're talking about. Only then are we going to see the roots of this process, a state of being.

“A wheel in the midst of a wheel.” That's what Ezekiel looked up and saw. “My goodness,” he said, “there's one inside of another. It looks as though there's a wheel in the midst of a wheel.” Very interesting!

What would happen if you were looking at a spiral coil. If you look at a spiral dead on the end, it's going to look just like a circle. If you looked at it head on, you wouldn’t be able to tell it was one layer after another, would you? Step outside yourself for a minute. Now what that chapter of Ezekiel really describes is a spiral. This is a spiral we call the spiral of ascension. We have ascension for the evolution of organic life, we have ascension of consciousness, or your mind, and we also have ascension of the soul.

One day my sister, who was a biochemistry major, came home and said, “Do you realize that the spiral that we were taught about in class, that left-hand spiral, is exactly what a strand of DNA looks like?” Now for those of you who are not sure what DNA is, it is deoxyribonucleic acid and it is the genetic code that is contained in every cell of your body. It's how your cells can replicate themselves, how they recreate. It is the pattern for your physical body. That's the microcosmic view.

Another amazing revelation was when my husband told me, “Do you realize that the most common type of galaxy available for observation is in the shape of a spiral?” Well, I began to think, “as above, so below,” just as Marge pointed out this morning.

Well, you also have an ascending spiral in your mind. You have a subconscious, and we blame all sorts of things on that. You have the conscious mind, which is the rational, thinking part of you. Then you have the superconscious, and the superconscious kind of got shoved under roof for years, but it seems to be coming out more these days. In the last ten or fifteen years, people are very interested in what they're getting through their intuition, through the superconscious mind. Sometimes it would be really great and other times it's questionable.

You have these three levels as well in the soul. You have, at the bottom of the spiral of ascension, the subsoul level. It's what tells your body, “Oops, don't touch that, it's hot.” It's what prompts your conscious mind, “Oops, you forgot your car keys,” and “Did you turn off the lights?” Or, “Did you turn off the stove before you left?” Unfortunately, that part is also the one that says, “I don't wanna.” It's the whiner that lives inside each adult, the five-year-old child crying because he still thinks that he's stifled.

Then you have the conscious level of soul, the egoic portion. That is the portion that is supposed to direct your thinking, your activity on earth. Unfortunately, it usually has abdicated its responsibility in favor of the subsoul.

Then, beyond that, you have an Oversoul portion. That's the portion of you that still resides in a star somewhere. Do you find that concept strange? The Oversoul portion is the part of you that maintains your link direct with your Source, God. We won’t get into a definition of God — instead of hours or days or months, that could takes years and centuries!

So you're getting a better sense of proportion about this thing. Let's start out with ourselves again, remembering that we're thinking man, homo sapiens, and that we live on planet earth. It's our home. we're all citizens on this planet. I've never seen an astrology book that had chapters in it on the influence of the planet earth on a human being.

Another way of looking at the situation is that earth has eight brothers and sisters, eight siblings. There's Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and Pluto, and they're all brothers and sisters to planet earth. You have brothers and sisters; some of you have pets, too. How many of you have ever considered your pet as part of a family group? Do your kitty cat and dog have brothers and sisters? Do you ever think about the fact that they had a mother and a father? Well, the mother and father of planet earth we can call 'sol,” the sun. It's both father and mother.

At some dim and distant point in the past the sun spoke the Word and exploded, it extruded itself and it ultimately became planetary mass. And, of course, in so doing, it also became the Mother of Substance of all things. So right there you have a basic androgynous concept. Right here is something to look at every day, as Marge said, an object of veneration. Maybe there's some deep part of us that understands the androgynous concept, the fact that the separations we created are ours; they're mental — in our mind — they don't really exist.

Our solar system, then, is a family with at least nine planets, although there's real good evidence there's a planet outside the orbit of Pluto. You see, even after they discovered Pluto, they had already found out so much about that planet that they realized that Pluto, itself, cannot account for the perturbations in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus. There's another big one out there.

Now, it's very likely that there are millions and millions of solar systems in the galaxy, our local galaxy, called the Milky Way. It is inhabited by millions of children — solar systems — which all orbit a common focal point. Some of you were asking where you go when you go “up” or “out.” The first place that you would go is the center of your own galaxy, and let me tell you that's in the direction of Sagittarius. It's an astrophysically proven fact that the center of our galaxy is in Sagittarius, the archer, half man and half horse, the symbol of monumental, unthinkable power, and that is our source and center for this galaxy. we'll take it a step further. Astronomers have now discovered that there are literally millions of galaxies that form the unique little units called local clusters. Just like a cluster of grapes, they all hang together around a common center, and the center of the local cluster that we belong to is in the direction of Virgo, the Virgin.

Now, there's a level above that and they think it's called super-clusters. they're not too sure how many local clusters go into a super-cluster. At this point they're awaiting the construction of the space telescope; that's what our space shuttle, the Columbia, is all about. One of its major jobs, once everything is running smoothly and they're not calling off the flight at T minus thirty-one seconds, is to construct a telescope that orbits earth and is out in space and is far enough away that it's going to be free of the distortions of earth's atmosphere. That has really limited a lot of what we've been able to see at this point. They expect there to be incredible leaps and bounds now in what we'll be able to view. They’ll discover that the universe is a massive collection, just as you're a massive collection in your own right. And all the super-clusters, they believe, orbit a focal point somewhere that's probably the center of the universe. Metaphysically, we believe this is true. For our purpose, we're going to call this the Central Source. It is the Source of all life, all Light, all Paradise Gravity in the universe.

Now, we've just come to a couple more terms to define here. You know what life is, and you can infer what Light is, but what is Paradise Gravity? Well, the astrophysicists say that there has to be some kind of glue that holds things together, and that's Paradise Gravity. You can call it cosmic glue, you know, like Elmer's, but in an infinitely larger container. Paradise Gravity holds the universe together; it is what holds it in equilibrium. And the interesting thing is that they're discovering, based on a number of very strange and wonderful things they’ve observed, that perhaps we live in what's called a closed universe, not an open universe which continues to expand forever until it becomes so tenuous and substance-less that eventually it dies of heat death — it has no more heat. Now they're discovering certain strange and wonderful things again that indicate that there's probably more substance in the universe than previously thought and, lo and behold, we cannot account then for the missing mass. There isn't enough mass in the universe — they can't see it anyway, and if their postulations are true, their hypotheses are proven true, then we will know for sure within the next couple of years.

We live in a closed universe, and Paradise Gravity is drawing all creation back unto itself. In order to act as glue, we've got to have something to glue — you have to have the substance to hold together. And astrophysicists are close to finding the missing mass in the universe, so that the Paradise Gravity that we know, metaphysically, is there, can operate. Not only does Paradise Gravity draw all creation back unto itself, it also is the source of your yearning to know more. It's what starts your desire. It is what attracts you. It's what makes you hungry. It's what makes you say things in the quiet, still times of your days or nights, “Is this all there is?” See, part of me knows that's not true. Part of me knows that there's something more than all this — where is it? Well, you don't see Paradise Gravity and you can't feel it with your fingers. You don't smell it, can't taste it. It's not available to you by your senses, at least not those of your physical body. You have to go higher for it. Paradise Gravity is what your soul responds to — maybe not your body, but your soul.

Let's look at the physical body. we're still looking for proportion here, for a framework. The first thing we see is our skeleton. The skeleton is the frame that keeps the whole thing standing upright, your bony frame. The skin is what you’ve got to hold it all together.

Then your body has some truly marvelous little pathways. we've got a central nervous system, and they still haven't come to the end of research on that. You have musculature, just amazing different types of muscles, muscles that are acted upon by a minute amount of hormones. Your body, your blood pressure is regulated by these hormones. Something in the old cerebral cortex causes it to secrete out of this gland over here and all of a sudden your blood pressure's moved. It's really remarkable, a strange and wonderful thing.

You also have your organ systems for elimination and assimilation. You have a lymph system which constantly purifies your body. You have the heart, which is the center of life in your body. Obviously, if it doesn't beat, you don't live. How many times have you heard people say, “Oh my goodness, you broke my heart”? Move out of yourself. You get something new. Then you have the brain. Well now, if the heart is the center of life, the brain is the center of Light. The ancients in the Bible, in Ecclesiastes, called it the “golden bowl,” the golden bowl of consciousness and of your being, of your soul. It holds all the glands in the head and in the brain. And that's your own personal body universe, the macrocosm.

Now let's take a look at the correspondingly teeny-tiny, small, infinitely small world called a microcosm. A microcosm is discussed in great deal in some of the books we mentioned this morning: The Tao of Physics and Space, Time and Beyond, where you'll see the physicists talking about quantum mechanics and the new physics. The microcosm, for our purposes, deals with consciousness as energy and energy as consciousness. Quantum physics, quantum mechanics, energy as consciousness, consciousness as energy.

Now this world of the microcosm is filled with teeny-tiny little citizens that you will never see. You can't even see these little fellas under an electron microscope, which is the best earth has to offer today. In order to detect the presence of these tiny little citizens, they build huge cyclotrons and they spin them out and they have big, long tunnels which shoot them through, and if something was destroyed in the process, they know something was there. They can't even see these things because they're infinitely small. And they’ve very, very strange names, like quarks. Now quarks come in flavors, quarks comes in colors, quarks are called strange, they have charm. They even have little attributes like up and down or top and bottom. Very, very strange terminology being used today, almost like it came from, say, a temple in Egypt somewhere? Maybe most of the physicists who are working on these things today are just reincarnations of some of the great ones of the old days.

There are other strange and wonderful things, too, like neutrinos, photons (the basic particles of light), and electrons. These little fellows join together, no one knows for sure how. They suppose that there might be a particle called a gluon. Obviously, my idea of Paradise Gravity being the cosmic glue is not new since it's already been used by certain of the astrophysicists. But they think that there's some sort of force or particle itself called a gluon. It literally means “glued on.” One of these little quarks gets glued on to the other and slowly but surely, they're building into something new. They form neutrons, photons, and, ultimately, atoms.

Now here we're at a level you all know about — the atoms. You all know about what they construct. They construct molecules, big chains of atoms tied together. Now, molecules, form what are called amino acids, the basic chains of molecules, but they're proteins. Just about everything in your body is protein. These proteins have been found out in space, they’ve been found in material reclaimed from comets that have fallen, and even in meteors. So that means that they exist outside of planet earth. They exist in bodies that have nothing to do with planet earth, and they are absolute, above DNA, in that they're one of the necessary elements for life. So all things in the universe are somehow impregnated to rupture out with living mass. These molecules join together and they form gases, they form rocks, they form plants, they form cold-blooded animals, they form warm-blooded animals. Everything in your body is composed of molecules. Everything everywhere is composed of molecules, your building blocks.

Now, one of the major purposes of life is the evolution and ascension of consciousness. A major purpose is also to transform matter into energy. Well, now we're right back to old Albert Einstein, E = Mc2, the Theory of Relativity. Most of you have at least heard of it, even if you're not too sure how it works. Einstein's Theory of Relativity states that if you were to take a piece of matter, say the glass on this table, and if you were to raise the rate of vibration of the substance that forms that glass to the speed of light, it would transmute into light. The converse is true: If you were to take a cupful of light and slow down its rate of vibration, it would become form.

The thought struck me that if you could do that, you'd be a god and could create anything you wanted to in a cupful of light. This is what we want to do to ourselves; we want to transmute matter into energy. This body is matter. We want to raise the rate of vibration of our own bodies. To do this is going to give us health, happiness, well-being. We also want to raise the rate of vibration of our thinking, desire, of our imaginations, to which we so often pay only partial attention. There is a great deal of energy there, potential energy, that has never really been tapped. And in order to exercise imagination, you'd better have your thinking straight or you'll wind up with all sorts of nightmares, dreams. Ever have dreams where, just by thinking, you could change it? That's a state of conscious that's fairly close to the one we're in right now, but it's no where near as far as we want to go.

You can effect a change in the rate of vibration of any object by shocking it. You could smash this water pitcher, and you would have raised its rate of vibration; you would have produced for it physical trauma. If you’ve ever been in an automobile accident or anything like that, you know what this means. Trauma to the physical body will alter your rate of vibration. Trauma to the emotional life will do the same thing; it changes all the hormonal flows through your body chemistry. You know what else can do the same thing? Enlightenment. It's a Buddhist term really related to Buddhist temples. Enlightenment. Do you know what enlightenment is? It's stepping outside of yourself long enough to see something new. We see something in a new perspective. It's what I asked you to do before you started today, step outside yourself. Once you do, you start to see that every time you step out of yourself you — you don't have to wait for anybody else to do it for you — you shed new light on an old mystery. You start seeing the truth of reality versus the truth of appearances.

Let's look at the wheel in the midst of a wheel, the spiral of ascension. And we're going to remember now that consciousness is energy. What we're about to share is unlike anything you’ve ever heard before in relationship to the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

Aries: Take a look at the first sign of the Zodiac for a minute. It's called Aries. Aries is alive with a capital A, underlined, bold and italic! Alive! Aries is alive! Exclamation points! It is alive with uncontrolled energy. Centrifugal energy. Remember that from high school? Centrifugal is where you start spinning it out like this and the momentum throws it out against the sides of the cyclotron. Aries is alive with uncontrolled energy that is centrifugal. It represents universal life. It's directed to the future. And listen to this: Aries destroys personal resistance to change. Are there any Arians here? We must be gathering new little rams. How did you like that description of you? Did you understand that this describes a process, not just a state of being?

Taurus: Taurus is a sign of earthly reproduction, and an energy state. It contains all the potential of the senses, and by that I mean the physical senses. And here's where we depart. It's the sign of masculine fertility. So much for everyone who thinks that Taurus is a feminine earth sign. Or as Marge pointed out, not too long ago, why do you think its symbol is a bull?

Taurus is the cosmic activity of the Light and Breath of God. Think about that for a minute. In other words, you're not just talking about attributes of a sign: like Taurus is careful; Taurus is acquisitive. They build things, they like Golden Calves, things like that. you're talking about a living energy system. Taurus IS cosmic activity of the Light and Breath of God. It is that thing. Taurus is the impregnation of life by Light. Think about that, step outside for a minute. In order to become fruitful for God, you must be impregnated by the Light. Now, when we pray, we say, “Dear Father-Mother of us all, let the Light permeate me.” But, you see, it doesn't just permeate, it actually impregnates whether you're male or female so that you can give birth to something new.

At this stage you're androgynous; you're neither male nor female. This is an unresolved process. You cannot get the feeling that there has been anything accomplished here. There's only been a great deal of input given. It is not finished in this sign. You have not achieved anything other than impregnation.

Gemini: we'll move to Gemini. Any Geminis here today? Gemini is an interesting sign. It's the energy of all possible possibilities. It is a 'stirring” to life — it is not yet alive, but it is getting there. You have universal life in the universe in Aries, you have the impregnation of life in Taurus, and now you have stirring toward life in Gemini.

The keynote of Gemini is “uncertainty.” Now, I've heard a lot of people say that Geminis sure can never make up their minds. Maybe there's a real good reason for that. If they don't make up their mind about things, then they're not set in some things. Maybe they have a secret that all of us can share. Under Gemini, you have to choose. You must choose among all the possible possibilities that sign is. What are you going to be? Are you like Joshua, the son of uncertainty who led all of the Hebrews into Canaan land? Joshua, the son of Nun, really was the keynote of uncertainty. They did not know what was going to happen when they crossed over. One of the last things he said to the tribes was, “Choose this day whom thou wilt serve.” So this is the choice of Gemini: What possibility among all those available to you are you going to pick?

Cancer: Now, Cancer is the primordial substance permeated with all cosmic possibilities. It's difficult to completely share with you my vision of this, but it's something that goes something like this. I will be here, you are here (indicating). Do you want to make yourself a circle instead of a line?

Under Cancer, energy penetrates, energy springs forward simultaneously. This is your consciousness. It's waiting. And if you let it pour into you, you're not going to go anywhere without it pouring out again; you'd become a slave. That's when you start thinking of the source of the energy. What you get you must give away. Cancer is feminine fertility. Do you start to see a picture developing here?

Leo: Now we start all over again with another fire sign, Leo. Leo is the origin of all possibilities of consciousness. It's either fertile or it burns away, just like the sun does. It will either accelerate or destroy your evolving consciousness. Leo draws its life and substance from Cancer and gradually, slowly builds new structures.

Virgo: Now we come to Virgo. Is this the Virgin? It's the seed of spiritual life. The body, the mind and the soul are alive and fruitful. Under Aries they were only alive, now they're becoming fruitful. The Virgin is pregnant with greater life and maturity than ever before. Notice this, not just life but maturity.

Libra: Under Libra, we have the living process of what is called reflective consciousness. It's still immature, more mature than Virgo but less mature than it's going to become. It doesn't originate it, it doesn't create it. What Libra does is give life to the subconscious. It mixes dreams and symbols and imagination with reality.

Under Libra, Light is projected into symbols. It's very dangerous here, very dangerous. It is difficult to discern between reality and the appearance of things.

Scorpio: Under Scorpio we have a half-awakened consciousness. It recognizes earthly wisdom and intuits something higher. But the way is open here to all possibilities. Scorpio is a far more dangerous place to stop than Libra because here you are receiving a great influx of energy at the physical, psychological, emotional, mental, spiritual, all the levels of being. You are receiving a great deal of energy influx, and the trick is to hold balance.

Sagittarius: We have Sagittarius wherein the male and female are cosmic and complete. Sagittarius, the third fire sign, is the end of an earthly cycle. There is a powerful spiritual consciousness which is asserted outward, you don't hold it in, you travel with it.

This sign, just as Gemini, forces a choice. Now, in Gemini, you chose between all possible possibilities; you were so new and so open to everything and change and all manner of energy. Here your choice is between the old and the new, all of your old structures in thinking and everything new. Your choice is stagnation or growth, appearance and reality.

Capricorn: Under Capricorn we find an inner life of new maturity. we're bringing it into the inner life now, and the highest expression of this is unity of being and action. Jesus said, “I and the Father are One,” and that is exactly what you find under Capricorn. That is the state of consciousness that can be achieved there. In outer reality, it represents earth.

Aquarius: Here we come to my favorite sign, Aquarius. It is my favorite sign because right now we are in the Aquarian Age and the material available for Aquarian astrologers is wonderful. Under Aquarius, the structures of evolution die; they're killed, they're dead. They die, to be replaced with feminine perfection. This is one of the greatest mysteries of all. Women set the pattern; women create the form. If we want a new consciousness today, we must create it.

Here you have to go beyond yourself — have to. Resistance moves and it meets life. Life moves and it meets resistance. It's the old parable about the egg: You have a shell on the egg; if the shell is not strong enough the egg cannot reach maturity. If it's too thick, too tough, the chick that's inside can't crack the shell and get out. It's a great thing to think of when you think of Aquarian consciousness.

Pisces: Under Pisces, you have masculine perfection. Interesting, isn't it. The mundane astrology teaches that Aquarius is a masculine sign — how wrong they are! It also teaches that Pisces is feminine — equally wrong. Pisces is masculine perfection and it is also cosmic completion. You have truly created, created and completed a cycle. The inner life becomes active on the outer and new life proliferates. You see, that's where Aries really gets it from.

What we've just gone through is one passage on that spiral. It begins like this (diagram of a left-hand spiral): we're right here to here (first full circle on spiral). Even though it would look like a circle to you, it is just one passage on the spiral. Now how many times do you think the spiral turns? How many times do you think you incarnate on the planet earth? How many times do you think you incarnate on other planets? How many times do you think you’ve been here? Are you tired? Are you ready to go home yet? I am.

These processes we've described here are living processes; they continue, they never cease. This is part of the constant revolving creation of the Great One who said, “Let there be Light!” This is Light; this describes Light. It transforms itself down from pure Light into matter. It involves itself, and it forms things like us. And then we have the job of evolving that energy back to pure Light again; that's the whole purpose of being and reason for living on earth.

I hope that some of these ideas here have cracked some shells on your thinking. That's exactly what it was designed to do. you'll find that you can't apply this type of astrology easily to a regular chart. you'll find that what it will create a change in you because you'll think about it again and again, and you'll start to realize that you never go from point A to point B — you simply are, now, an ever-increasingly exciting process. You are part of the process. Do you know that you can create the process?

This answers your question, doesn't it? And the one thing about the mundane type of astrology I long ago realized is that astrology is a wheel. isn't that one of the first things you noticed about it? A big wheel, and it's got twelve spokes. And when you do a chart, you always put the house numbers and everything on the outer rim of the wheel. What happened to me for years and years and years was that the wheel ran over me! I had broken ribs, broken toes — I was tired! So, there's a secret that Ruth Johnson shared with me a long time ago: You don't ride the rim; you stand on the hub. Do you know what happens when you stand on the hub of that spiral? It's the straight path. When you're talking about the spiral, you’ve got to understand that all of the energy we described comes down through it, like this (tracing spiral diagram from top to bottom), and radiates out toward the spiral along those spokes we talked about. Where do you want to be — getting run over on the rim or standing in the hub? I've been desperate too many times — get me to the hub on time!

Well, I certainly hope that this afternoon has filled you with some new ideas, that it has shaken some of your confidence in what you think you know. Uncertainty is the name of the game. If there is anything that astrology can teach it's creatorship — each sign creates, for better or for worse. I don't want to know exactly what it's going to be like when we finally go home. God is big enough to let us name our own prize. It's going to be all the glory and the beauty and the majesty we can dream of and more!

“O, Wheel!”
Planets as States of Consciousness
Ruth Johnson

We're going to talk today about planets as a state of consciousness. I'm going to have to bring in some of the mundane to make it understandable, and then go on to the higher state of consciousness of each one of the planets. And you know, we speak of "O, Wheel, O, Wheel, let us raise our consciousness enough to see."

Just as man has various states of consciousness, so do the planets. Let's take man first. He has four states of consciousness: Physical or mundane, emotional, mental, spiritual. The same is true of the planets. We recognize that man has an immortal soul; the planets, too, have immortal souls.

Pluto: Today we're going to discuss the planets one by one, and we're going to begin with the planet Pluto. Pluto was discovered February 18, 1930, half a century ago, that's all. It is the ninth planet in orbit from the Sun. Pluto's orbit is different from that of any other planet, being much longer and at a different angle. The other planets transit around the sun in an elliptical orbit, but Pluto is extreme, being at much longer and a narrower orbit, and comes inside it. Do you get the picture? Here's Neptune in its orbit around the sun, and Pluto, further away, in a longer, extremely elliptical orbit, which periodically comes inside the orbit of Neptune.

Astronomers predict this intra-Neptunian orbit will last twenty years from 1979 to 1999. No one knows how often this occurs because no one knows exactly what Pluto's orbit is. We haven't known enough about it in fifty years, you see. However, astronomers predict that it has an orbit period of 248.5 years and, by the way, it will be closest to the earth in 1989.

Now why are we interested in this intra-Neptunian orbit of Pluto? Because it affects us in a mundane way and it also affects our consciousness because Pluto is the planet of Ascension.

In a mundane way, Pluto, since its discovery in 1930, has been responsible for drastic increases in knowledge. Think of all the world has learned in the last fifty years. Like the water sign of Scorpio, which it controls, it rules both death and resurrection. Both weapon systems, and the advancement of medicine are Plutonian. Here we have that which kills and that which saves life.

The whole world has known nothing but war and rumors of war since 1930. Pluto rules the masses in both a negative and positive way, and notice what I say here " masses " because this is what you think about when you think about Pluto. For example, the mass destruction of war, the neutron bomb that can kill people but leave buildings intact, mass strikes, the problems of the masses in Great Britain, Ireland, Poland, the Middle East, the world economy that is affecting masses all over earth.

In a positive way, Pluto leads to a Rebirth physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, a Rebirth of high ideas and ideals, but based on practical common sense. We all remember the great myth of Persephone, who was kidnaped by Pluto, the god of death, and taken to his underworld. She became his queen, and he finally granted her freedom six months of the year. He did this because her mother, Ceres, goddess of earth, came down and interceded for her. Only the goddess of life could challenge the god of death. So Persephone, who represents the soul of man, was resurrected each year, then the sun shone and the crops grew again. This myth represents a great mystery of life.

Pluto brings challenges, and if you look high enough, will show you the answer to these challenges. The planet has a positive and negative pole. When it appears to threaten your favorite ideas and desires with annihilation, check to see if they are not your old opinions and prejudices. Pluto and Scorpio are the planet and sign of deeply ingrained concepts and the glorious resurrection of the new. We have the God-given choice of following Pluto into Hades, the land of darkness, or letting the planet propel us up into the Light.

Neptune: Now we're going to turn to the planet Neptune, which is the eighth planet in orbit from the Sun. Neptune was the Roman god of the sea, and in Greek mythology was called Poseidon. He was the brother of Jupiter, or Zeus.

The keynote of Neptune is aspiration. It symbolizes the soul aspiring to God, however the world calls it the planet of illusion and delusion. Neptune does rule Maya, the illusion of the senses. It is the veil of unreality between you and God. In a mundane way, it is the planet that is connected with the drug culture. It also has to do with alcoholism, self-indulgence, and the desire to escape from reality.

When the consciousness is down, the influence of Neptune is nebulous. When we come down from the heights of aspiration, we find that Neptune represents psychometry, mediumship, and things of a mysterious or hidden nature. It rules the feet, representing understanding. In its esoteric sense, Neptune governs the very base of understanding and knowledge, of things as they are and not as they seem to be.

Neptune was discovered in 1846. It has much to do with boats and navigation. Since its discovery, the world has gone from sailboats to steam to diesel fuel, to nuclear submarines, all ruled by Neptune. Neptune is the ruler of the water sign Pisces, which in its highest sense is a sign of high spirituality and of love of all things beautiful. When Neptune and Pisces come together in an ascended state of consciousness, we have illumination, which is the keynote, by the way, of Neptune. With Neptune we have the choice of self-delusion or of moving up as sons and daughters of God to identify with the Father.

Uranus: Now we come to the very interesting planet Uranus. Uranus is the seventh planet in orbit from the Sun. It was discovered in 1781. It is a revolutionary planet; its discovery was followed by the American and French Revolutions, the Communist Revolution in Russia, the Nazi uprising in Germany and the resulting war, sundry other revolutions including a revolution in human consciousness which is going on now.

A revolutionary planet in its mundane sense, yes, but esoterically, Uranus is the planet of revelation through God-given wisdom. It is the higher octave of Mercury, and Mercury is the planet of intellect.

Uranus tears down, but it tears down dead rot only to rebuild with vision. Its keyword is revelation. Uranus entered the sign of Scorpio in November, 1974. It has transited through Scorpio for seven years, and on November 16, 1981, two days from now, it will enter the sign of Sagittarius, to remain there another seven years. The combination of Uranus and Scorpio brought subversion and terrorism to the world in a mundane way, but to many who have been seeking new knowledge Uranus in Scorpio has brought forth new technology, great scientific advancement. Uranus, by the way, rules both astronomy and astrology.

To those who have been seeking a way back to God, it has been through the trial and error system for many and a cleaning up of the subconscious mind. But they have been rewarded with new revelations that will lead them to new heights. This is especially true for the Scorpio-born.

In Greek mythology, Uranus was the personification of heaven and the ruler of the world. He was the husband of the goddess Gaia and father of the Titans and Cyclops. He believed his children were trying to take his power away from him, so he confined them to the island of Tartarus, had them all locked up. His son Cronus, the youngest of the Titans, escaped, and with the help of his mother, Gaia, he dethroned his father, Uranus.

But, like the ancient mythological god, the planet Uranus is one of great leadership. It is the ruler of the air sign Aquarius, the humanitarian sign of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. You have the choice of following Uranus into self-destruction or of ascending your consciousness through the process of being your brother's keeper, continuing to move up, tearing away old concepts, and moving up into the Light of new revelation.

Sun: Now we're going to take a look at the Sun, Moon and other planets. The Sun is a fixed star, as you all know, that is the center of our solar system. It contains all of the life-giving powers. Without the rays of the Sun, there would be no life on earth. It is the overall ruler of our solar system, the parent of all our planets, and represents abundance from the material to the spiritual.

The Sun is the ruler of the fire sign of Leo, known from ancient days as the sign of kings. If you are called a Leo, for example, it means that at your birth time the Sun was transiting through that particular sign.

From an esoteric viewpoint, it means that your sun sign indicates your soul expression in this incarnation. Let's say you're a Sagittarian. This means that you came through the Gate of Sagittarius this time and the Sun gives you a Sagittarian individuality for this particular incarnation.

Moon: Now we're turning to the Moon, and the Moon revolves around the earth monthly at a mean distance of 238,857 miles. It accompanies the earth in its annual revolution around the Sun. The Moon is connected with motherhood, the home, the family in general, and the Moon has much to do with property, the home in which you live, etc. It rules the water sign of Cancer and has domain over the ebb and flow of the tides. It rules the oceans.

Emotion is connected with the Moon in its phases. Desire stirs the emotions from the lowest to the highest. When we are ascended in consciousness, the Moon gives us a burning desire to ascend into the Light.

Saturn: Saturn is the sixth planet in orbit from the Sun. We have all been intrigued recently with the new astronomical information of Saturn through our wonderful deep space probe Voyager II, and Voyager I first, of course. Astrologers call Saturn the great disciplinarian. It rules the sign of Capricorn. While it does not rule man's law, it does rule God's Law, which to us means sacrifice of the little self with all its opinions and prejudices.

When you move up to the Saturnine Law of the Living God, your reward is expressed in the sixth verse of the 23rd Psalm: 'surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Think of Saturn and its Law of God.

The keyword of Saturn is Consolidation. It rules the bone structure, the framework, of the physical body. Its influence is to contract rather than to expand. It's a conservative planet. Saturn brings tests and initiations, but when it gives, its bounty is permanent. What Saturn gives you, you can hold in the hollow of your hand this way, close your fist and know it's going to stay. It isn't taken away.

In Roman mythology Saturn was characterized as the god of agriculture and vegetation. In December, the Romans celebrated the festival of Saturn, called the Saturnalia. The Greeks viewed Saturn as far more of a disciplinarian than the Romans did. This is something that I've never understood, but it's historical fact.

Jupiter: Now Jupiter is the fifth planet in orbit from the Sun. It is the largest planet in our solar system. Not only do we know about it now, but we know a lot more about its moons, as well, in the last few months. Jupiter is known as the benefic planet or, as some call it, the planet of good fortune. It is expansive in nature. Instead of contracting, Jupiter expands. It's expansive in nature and gives abundantly in ways that are material, mental and spiritual. Jupiter rules the sign of Sagittarius, and together they influence philosophy and religion. They also influence higher education, higher law, judges, courts of appeal, the Federal Bench and the Supreme Court, all under Jupiter in Sagittarius.

Jupiter, or Zeus, was the supreme deity of the Romans and the Greeks. He ruled with a mighty hand, according to mythology. The keyword of Jupiter is expansion, as you would expect it to be. This gives us the opportunity, under Jupiterian influence, to expand in consciousness to supreme heights.

Mars: Mars is the planet next beyond the earth, the fourth planet in orbit around the Sun. It rules the sign of Aries. Its keynote is Energy. The influence is active, never passive, and forever seeking leadership. In the ancient world, Mars was known as the god of war. The temple dedicated to Mars was connected with warlike operations. In the spring, when the Sun was in Aries, certain days were devoted to Martian ceremonies.

The Bible tells of the war between good and evil, and of the legions of Heaven, led by the Archangel Michael. There are positive and negative battles within ourselves which embody the Martian consciousness within us. When Mars battles for good, we rise up, bruised perhaps, but triumphant in conquering our frailties and lifting into a new and higher state of consciousness. But, remember, it takes that battle, first.

Venus: Venus is the most brilliant planet, having an orbit next inside the earth's and second from the Sun. Known to Romans as Venus, goddess of love and beauty and the arts, and to the Greeks as Aphrodite, she was beloved by the ancient world. They believed that she arose from the sea in all her glory, bringing a new beauty to man in all ways, all phases of love, all branches of the arts. She was the mother of Cupid.

The planet rules Libra, the sign of beauty and the arts. Libra also rules man's law. Remember, Saturn and Capricorn rule God's Law. Libra and Venus rule man's law. And the symbol of Libra is the scales of justice.

Venus rules a second sign, Taurus, in a mundane way, the sign of money. So the planet influences several things: Love, the arts, partnerships, marriage and divorce, law, justice and money. The keynote of Venus is balance. The Law of the Universe is in operation continually, and when it manifests through the rays of Venus, it requires effort to maintain equilibrium. The message of Venus is to keep your feet on the ground, your vision high, and to stay in balance.

Mercury: Now Mercury is the planet nearest the Sun. It rules two signs, Gemini and Virgo. Llewellyn George, who wrote the A to Z Horoscope Maker and Delineator, sort of the astrological Bible, gave an excellent description of Mercury. He said: "Among the ancients, Mercury was known as Thoth, Hermes, and the Messenger of the Gods. Its speed in orbit is approximately 95,000 miles per hour. It was usually portrayed as a youth, flying with wings at his heels, bearing a caduceus made of olive wood about which were twined two serpents, the rod being surmounted with a pair of wings. This symbol well represents the essential quality of the planet, duality, speed, and wisdom."

The ancients believed that Mercury, that the god, Mercury, carried the messages of the gods to the children of men. It is interesting to note that the keyword of Mercury is Communication. Mercury rules the hands in the physical body and all the skills. It also rules the tongue; therefore, it rules speech and all forms of communication. And when we speak of all forms of communication, that means newspapers, magazines, telephones, telegraph, all of the news media whether it's radio or television or what, but communication is Mercurial.

When we cease to use idle words and only speak positively, we then communicate according to the Law of God. Because Uranus is the higher octave of Mercury, the great message of Mercury is to rise up from the ray of intellect to the Uranian ray of Wisdom.

Vulcan: And now we have one more planet to discuss, the unseen planet Vulcan. Many astrologers agree that it exists, hidden by the Sun. The ancient Greeks worshiped Vulcan as the lame god who was both the blacksmith and the architect of the gods. He was the husband of Venus, and he lost her to the warrior god, Mars-a little hanky-panky in Heaven in those days.

Esoterically, we think of Vulcan as the blacksmith using fire to mold steel, the refiner's fire. We have to go through the refiner's fires for the remolding, the rebuilding of our own characters. The keyword of Vulcan is inspiration, and you need great inspiration to rebuild character.

Now that we are in the Aquarian Age, we find that earth is going through the refiner's fires. Vulcan is giving our consciousness the ability to create new reality, and it is one of the major planetary influences for the Aquarian Age to accomplish the adjustment of earth into its own, higher, harmonious orbit.

The center of our galaxy points toward Sagittarius, and we believe the soul of our planet earth will move back up into Sagittarius, lifting the whole world's consciousness with it. We're nearing the end of the Armageddon and we're looking forward to the Joy vibration of the Golden Age!